|
|
Monday, October 14, 2002
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Antioxidant may slow Parkinson's progress [Reuters Health eLine]
An antioxidant called coenzyme Q10 may slow the progression of the neurological illness Parkinson's disease, the results of a new study suggest.
About 1% of Americans older than 65 have Parkinson's disease, which causes tremor, muscle rigidity and movement problems. An underlying cause is the slow loss of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine, a brain chemical involved in movement. Current Parkinson's therapy relieves symptoms, but does not slow the progression of the disease.
Recent research has raised the possibility that people with Parkinson's might have problems with structures called mitochondria, which are the "powerhouses" of cells. In fact, Dr. Clifford W. Shults of the University of California-San Diego and colleagues found that Parkinson's patients have reduced levels of coenzyme Q10 in their mitochondria. This led the researchers to investigate whether the antioxidant would be useful in treating the disease.
The study involved 80 people who had been diagnosed with Parkinson's but had not yet received treatment. The participants were randomly assigned to take a daily dose of 300 milligrams (mg), 600 mg or 1,200 mg of coenzyme Q10 or an inactive pill called a placebo. Patients were evaluated at the start of the study and after 1, 4, 8, 12 and 16 months.
|
|
8:36:42 PM 
|
|
|
Altruism as a cultivated resource. Phil Windley notices my post about sharing and talks about the altruistic "abundance mentality" that is a prerequisite to becoming an effective blogger. That certainly describes me and many other people I know who regularly share knowledge whether or not it's via blogging.
Of course, it also *doesn't* describe a much larger lot of people that make up most organizations, and that's problematic to the introduction of knowledge sharing tools.
With my recent plugging of Open Source collaborative content management tools, I've done a lot of thinking about what it takes to make knowledge sharing work in an organization. What it takes is enthusiasm, altruism, optimism. For it all to really sing, you have to attract a critical slice of the target audience who will participate fully and happily.
But you can't simply decree that everyone in the organization will tomorrow become lucid, concise, insightful writers or will feel enthusiastic about their work. Some people will never have it in them, some just need to get bit by the bug.
I see Brent Ashley's thoughts on what it takes to make knowledge sharing work in an organization closely tied to various issues that we face when we think about eduational applications of instant and dynamic Webpublishing. If we talk about using such systems on an organizational level in a given educational institution (school, uni, ...) we necessarily are confronted with people who simply do not have any interest in sharing information on their acitities, who don't want to engage in a conversation with the students, their parents, and the wider community. Here the parallel to Brent's obeservations seems obvious.
But I even argue that also learners need to build up "enthusiasm, altruism, optimism" to be comfortable to share an externalized record of their learning process with others. We live in a culture that mainly focuses on the measurable (...often short term) results of one's learning efforts. The struggle, the mistakes, the detours, and breakdowns are usually kept private.
So, while it is really important to talk about issues of tools, access, and hosting... we should not forget to think and converse about the conceptual shift that is required to support human learning efforts with these new technologies. Now, one interesting question is: do we need a conceptual change before we can "really" apply these technologies, or can we use them to actually initiate and support a gradual conceptual shift? [Seblogging News]
|
|
3:13:21 PM
|
|
|
|
Survey shows high levels of teen stress. Results of a new high school survey - with alarming levels of stress cited - gives school officials insight to help change students' lives. Results showed 16 percent of students have considered suicide. A whopping 70 percent say they are stressed out. Article [HeartMath Report]
|
|
10:09:42 AM
|
|
|
|
Thom Hartman. "Change our culture, beginning with yourself.
Such a solution is among the most perplexing to grasp because culture, at its core, is invisible. Like the air we breathe and walk through, its presence is only felt when it’s resisted: at all other times it’s part of the nothing-around-us that we rarely consider and almost never question.
The idea of cultural change is also often unpalatable because any sort of real, individual, personal change in beliefs and behaviors is so difficult as to be one of the rarest events we ever experience in our own lives or witness among those we know. It’s easy to send ten dollars off to the Sierra Club; it’s infinitely more difficult to reconsider beliefs and behaviors held since childhood, and then change your way of life to one based on that new understanding, new viewpoint, or new story.
But if such deep change is what we really need, I see no point in pretending that something simpler will do it."
|
|
9:54:48 AM
|
|
|
|
Thomas Jefferson. "Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."
|
|
9:43:51 AM
|
|
|
|
Leo J. Burke. "People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one."
|
|
9:43:01 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright
2002
Rick@Leaders.net.
Last update:
11/1/2002; 12:09:27 PM.
|
|
|
